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Microsoft Responds to 16% Failure Rate

This week SquareTrade, a warranty firm, released a report indicating that the Xbox 360 has a 16.4 percent failure rate. This number was based on a sample group of 1,000 warranties. Microsoft has responded to IGN about they report and says they are unfamiliar with this “SquareTrade” company and have not seen the report…

“Microsoft does not comment on hardware failure rates [emphasis by Microsoft], nor do we comment on speculation,” Microsoft spokesman Joe DiMiero told IGN in an e-mail message today. “We have not seen the report, and are unfamiliar with the agency that filed it. Based on the enthusiast community’s feedback yesterday, the methodology of this report is suspect.”

Honestly, if I was Microsoft I’d take the 16% failure rate and run with it. I would have thought it was higher. Almost every single person I know with an Xbox 360 has seen it broken in one way or another. In fact, my step brother’s 360 just broke, for the second time, this week.

Also, some interesting points about the comment, to me:

– Why not comment on the failure rate if it’s lower? Wouldn’t you want to save face?
– Just because they don’t know the company means the report is invalid?
– They questioned the methodology of the report based on “community feedback”. What does that mean? The only reason they are questioning the methodology is some random person sent them feedback?